Synopsis:
A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.
A prince in danger must decide who to trust.
A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.
Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.
In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light. Wicked Saints is the thrilling start to Emily A. Duncan’s devastatingly Gothic Something Dark and Holy trilogy..
My Thoughts:
I came super late to this game. I also got here in a pretty roundabout way (which honestly, for me, isn’t all that weird). I read this book because I requested Ruthless Gods from Net Galley – I requested it based on cover art and basic synopsis, somehow missing that it was a sequel – although in hindsight, I’m not sure they could have been clearer on that. Whatever, I’m not always great with the details when I get excited. So…about halfway through Ruthless Gods I decided that, although I liked what I was reading, it was referencing a lot of mysterious business that required some research.
So, I put it down and ordered Wicked Saints. Cue several days later, my book has arrived, and I devour it. I mean, I absolutely destroyed that book. I know that t e c h n i c a l l y this is YA stuff, and don’t worry – I still don’t go in for YA as a whole. I haven’t fundamentally changed. But although these are young adult characters (15-17-ish from what I’ve gathered), they are like old-timey teens – in other words: adults who are young. They don’t answer to mommy and daddy, they don’t have high school problems. They deal in matters of state, of country, and of divinity.
This story covers the happenings of a thousand year (give or take) Holy War, and the unlikely alliance of a king or darkness, a king of light, and a cleric who lives under the divine authority of all the gods of Kalyazin, but in particular under Marzenya a goddess of, among other things, death.
“Some gods require blood.”
Wicked Saints, Emily Duncan
Something I find interesting about this book, and which keeps it from becoming (in my humble opinion) too trite or predictable is that unlike a lot of modern fantasy, it doesn’t rely on a love triangle. I have actually read a few reviews here and there talking about the triangle between Nadya, Malachiasz, and Serefin, but…it just isn’t there. At least not that I can see. Yes, there is a love, but that third point doesn’t exist. Sorry, y’all. She just thinks dude is nice – it doesn’t mean she wants to be nakey with him.
Something that is also interesting, and that appeals to me even more than the lack of ‘who does she love more’-ness, is the way that Duncan has woven the story through and through with some pretty grotesque elements of body horror. I’d say Ruthless Gods accomplishes this even more deftly, but it’s still fully present and mostly realized here. I mean, the Vultures are nasty. All the iron teeth and nails and spikes, and all that business that just busts up out of their skin all the damn time!
The vultures are gross, and scary, and wonderful. I mean…their leader sits on a…Carrion Throne… swoon. And I’m always into a good cult-based story arc, in case any of you somehow managed to miss that about me up until now. I live for cults, especially cults that engage in blood magic – which this one definitely does.
“We’re all monsters, Nadya, some of us just hide it better than others.”
Wicked Saints, Emily Duncan
As usual, I’m not going to delve into story specifics here, because I really don’t want to risk spoiling this for you. I think that if you like fantasy, quests, potential apocalypses, dark magic, divine magic, questioning whether or not gods are really gods at all, blood, body horror, moths, or doomed love this might be the book series for you.
It seems like people either really love this book or really hate it. I’m definitely in the first camp. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
About the Author (from GoodReads):
Emily A. Duncan was born and raised in Ohio and works as a youth services librarian. She received a Master’s degree in library science from Kent State University, which mostly taught her how to find obscure Slavic folklore texts through interlibrary loan systems. When not reading or writing, she enjoys playing copious amounts of video games and dungeons and dragons. She is represented by Thao Le of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
Rating:
Just read it – I’ll be back in a few days with my take on the sequel, which hits shelves April 7, 2020!
Wicked Saints Something Dark and Holy Trilogy By Emily Duncan Wednesday Books Horror, Fantasy ISBN: 1250195667 Published: April 2, 2019 Hardcover, E-book, Audio 385 Pages Author's Website
Glad you enjoyed this one. I’ve heard some really good things about it and have thinking about picking it up. Thanks for sharing!